Word of the Week - 30

Painting by N. C. Wyeth

Word of the Week:  FORETELL

As a younger creature, I wished to know what life held for me.  Consulting, even infrequently, psychics,  readers of runes and such had two fatal drawbacks: it cost too much money and the ones I consulted must have found me unreadable.   The conclusion I reached is that I was not meant to know.  Such information would be far more curse than blessing, I can see that now.  But once it felt intensely important to know if there would be a happy ending.  In the absence of knowing what would come next, the other option was to prepare for any eventuality, which we know is not possible.  For many years I described myself as "a belt AND suspenders" type.  There are no guarantees.

Recently I was referred to a website as the source for uncommon words related to color.  The site, The Phrontistery, meaning a thinking place, has gathered obscure, forgotten and little-used language for an array of subjects of which color is just one.  Another was "Divination and Fortune-telling."  Oh ho.  So many untried avenues, unexplored methods by which to foretell.  So many caught my attention but I think the best match would be stichomancy, "divination by picking passages from books at random."  Reaching for the book closest to the keyboard, a swell volume called "Beach Beauties: Postcards and Photographs 1890-1940," I found this on the first page I turned to:

"Of course, postcards are notoriously unreliable. (is this a clue?)  While they can serve as the cultural historian's dream, they are also sometimes creative works of fiction." (how to interpret this?)  As the Magic 8-Ball might say, "Signs unclear, ask again later."

I don't believe there was a single category for "divination by intuition."

What awaits is information beyond our knowing and for good reasons.   Hope and possibilities keep us showing up.  Predictions and proclamations are highly mutable.  I like to think that most doors remain open, in spite of what experts tell us, even those practiced in tyromancy, "divination using cheese."  I rest my case.